Arc Raiders has aggression-based matchmaking to push pugnacious PvPers together, but it's "not a full science"

If you can’t resist taking cheeky potshots at your fellow players in Arc Raiders, the shooter’s matchmaking can now neatly shuffle you into a session where you’re more likely to get a taste of your own medicine. Developers Embark have confirmed that some “aggression-based matchmaking” has been sprinkled into the game’s systems as of late, making PvP-prone players a bit more likely to be funnelled towards each other.

Said confirmation comes directly from the mouth of Embark CEO Patrick Söderlund during a recent interview with Games Beat. “Obviously first it’s skill based, of course,” the exec said of how Arc Raiders handles shifting folks where they need to go to start a game. “Then you have solos, duos, and trios. Also since a week ago or so, we introduced a system where we also matchmake based on…how prone you are to PvP or PvE.

“So, if your preference is to do PvE and have less conflict with players, you’ll get matched up [in line] with that [more often]. Obviously, it’s not a full science,” Söderlund added, before agreeing that it’d be accurate to dub this aggression-based matchmaking.

While the exec was clear this new element is just part of the equation the game turns to when deciding where to shuffle which players, it’ll be intriguing to see how folks’ willingness to turn their guns on each other being taken into account shapes things going forwards. Söderlund didn’t shed any light on how exactly the game measures your PvPness and the exact weight it’s given in where you get funnelled – possibly because he was busy playing Arc Raiders as he gave this interview.

From what he did say, though, it sounds like something simply designed to gently nudge different players towards an experience which mirrors how they play. Whether that’s as desirable as filtering by skill level or to shift away folks who show annoying habits like griefing or regularly dropping out of matches at awkward times – GTA Online springs to mind in terms of the latter – is the question.

In the short-term, running into less folks gunning for your head might be ideal if you’re keen to keep things a bit more chill. However, in the long run, maybe it’ll dull down some of the unpredictability which helps keep any online game – but especially shooters – feeling fresh. We’ll see how things play out.